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The 6 cell Rum Runner "prototype" mono.
By: Don Wollard
2 1/2 years ago the concept of this design was drawn on note book paper
while I was traveling on an airliner between coasts. I wanted a bass fishing boat that
would be stable with big horse power. The big boat is still on the drawing board and now
planned for sometime next year.
 The design goal for the
model was to have a fast competitive boat that does not have the bad handling habits of
many of the commerially produced hulls. We live and race in Florida (Southeastern
coastal USA) were it is usually windy and having boats that are stable in choppy water is
essential. Being fast is meaningless if you canąt be consistent. So a dramatic design
paradigm became quite a noteworthy challenge.
 About this
prototype. This boat was built of balsa wood, aircraft type model plywood and epoxy. The
hull is 21 inches long and 6 1/2 inches wide. Scratch built (of course) from patterns
which were enlarged from the original note book plans.
The first test was on May 30th. The test motor was a well used stock Midnight Pro (by
Trinity) with a 212d Astro ESC and Hi-Tec FM receiver, steering servo and transmitter.
Matched Sanyo 2000 cells (3 years old) were used for power. The hardware we choose was a
real mix. The running hardware is, (1) a Warehouse Hobbies strut, (2) Fullerąs Fast
Electricąs provided the rudder bracket, turn fin, motor mount and .098 flex-cable, (3)
Hughey Boats provided the rudder and (4) DPI trim tabs.
 To prop the boat we
decided to start with an Octura X432. Donnie ( Donnie@rumrunnerracing.com
) took the controls for the first run. The water was quite choppy. A thunderstorm
had just passed and we were not sure the boat would even stay upright. The X432 seemed to
cavitate quite a bit so we brought the boat in and switched to an X435. We then completed
5 laps before the batteries began to dump and the Astro glitch controllerą began to
talk to us. Checking the motor we found it to be only slightly warm. We allowed the motor
to cool while the batteries were recharged. This time we took a risk and switched to an
X632 prop. Smaller diameter and slight more pitch. Whoa! What a difference. The boat
increased several MPH in speed and was better handling. The boat delivered 6 laps on a
standard NAMBA course and a lot of video before we brought the boat in. The motor was only
slightly warm which was to our great surprise and relief. This prototype is everything we
had hope it would be.
We will continue to experiment with set-up, props and motors over the next few weeks. The
boat will see competition at the Florida Speed Fest Race in 3 weeks. For competition we
will switch to a new stock motor prepared by Rob Michael's of Superior Hobbies. We will do our own prop work and will likely use Octura Aluminum
props for competition. We will post more details on this hull as the racing season
develops. Rum Runner Racing will be racing this hull in N1 and N2 mono at the 1999 NAMBA
Fast Electric Nationals. Donnie will be at the controls and Dad in the pits. Stay tuned.
This Article was written by Don Wollard Exclusively for Rum Runner
Racing. Use of this article is prohibited without written permission from Rum Runner
Racing.
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